HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – A 43-year-old man was taken back into police custody after threatening his alleged kidnapping victim and not following his house arrest orders.
Aubrey Taylor was initially arrested in December of 2022 and charged with aggravated kidnapping and assault on a family member.
Records show that Taylor abducted a woman he was in a dating relationship with on Dec. 27, 2022. During the kidnapping, Taylor reportedly chocked the woman with his hands.
According to court documents, his bond was set at $1 per charge by Judge Josh Hill of the 232nd Criminal District Court. He posted the $2 bail on Jan. 13.
Suspect violates bond conditions two days after being released: Docs
While out on bond, Taylor is accused of threatening the kidnapping victim with a firearm on Jan. 16, according to court documents. The suspect also did not follow his house arrest conditions by leaving his home for several hours and failing to comply with curfew requirements.
He was arrested and charged with violation of protective order or bond condition and aggravated assault of a family member. A new bond was denied after that.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday.
Judge faces criticism for initially granting $2 bond to kidnapping suspect
Director of Victim Services and Advocacy at Crime Stoppers of Houston, Andy Kahan, said he’s shocked by the judge’s decision.
“A career habitual violent offender that’s got eight felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions for assault [and] has been to prison twice for robbery?” Kahan questioned.
Kahan believes Judge Hill was trying to send a message about newly passed legislation.
“Senate Bill 6 effectively eliminated any offender charged with a violent crime from getting what’s called a personal recognizance bond or a PR bond [which is] a get out of jail free card. It’s pretty obvious by the documentation on some of the court papers that this was meant to send a message, since I can’t give you a PR bond anymore, I’ll just make it as low as humanely possible,” Kahan said.
The Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating council released the following statement:
“The blatant disregard for the safety of the victim in the Aubrey Taylor case is just another concern in the long line of issues relating to how Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is addressed in Harris County. Harris County consistently leads our State in IPV homicides. The Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council and our Community Partners have numerous programs in place to assist victims of IPV but without the support of the entire Community and especially all involved within the Criminal Justice System, we will keep leading the State in IPV homicides.
There are many barriers to leaving an abusive situation, one including increased violence and risk for homicide when making the decision to leave. How will the victim be safe from their abuser? For a victim, knowing her offender is in custody gives her the ability to develop and employ a safety plan for when and if the perpetrator is released. This respite has increasingly become even shorter with the bond conditions that are being assigned case after case.
One can only imagine the depth of terror felt by the victim while being held by the offender over several days. The abuse the victim suffered at his hands is unfathomable. While we know an offender is innocent until proven guilty, his previous convictions lead us to believe that he perhaps is not going to follow the law, that committing further violence in the future is more than possible, and our system will not hold him accountable. The intimate partner violence field has tools and knowledge that can be used by criminal justice systems to assess for risk for intimate partner violence and the likelihood of homicide to occur. These tools can be used by law enforcement as well as the judicial response to assist in decision.”